Page images
PDF
EPUB

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.] I have not hitherto difcovered any novel on which this comedy appears to have been founded; and yet the ftory of it has moft of the features of an ancient romance. STEEVENS.

I fufpect that there is an error in the title of this play, which, I believe, fhould be-" Love's Labours loft." M. MASON.

Love's Labour's loft I conjecture to have been written in 1594. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I.

MALONE.

PERSONS represented.*

Ferdinand, King of Navarre.

Biron

}

Longaville, Lords, attending on the King.
Dumain,
Boyet,
Mercade,

} Lords, attending on the Princess of France. Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard. Sir Nathaniel, a Curate.

Holofernes, a Schoolmaster.

Dull, a Constable.

Coftard, a Clown.

Moth, Page to Armado.
A Forefter.

[blocks in formation]

Jaquenetta, a country Wench.

Officers, and others, attendants on the King and
Princefs.

SCENE, Navarre.

• This enumeration of the perfons was made by Mr. Rowe.

JOHNSON.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Navarre. A Park, with a Palace in it.

Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN.

KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the difgrace of death;
When, fpite of cormorant devouring time,
The endeavour of this prefent breath may buy
That honour, which shall bate his fcythe's keen edge,
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave conquerors!-for fo you are,
That war against your own affections,

And the huge army of the world's defires,-
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
Our court fhall be a little Academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.
You three, Birón, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have fworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes,
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are paft, and now fubfcribe your names;
That his own hand may strike his honour down,
That violates the smallest branch herein:

If you are arm'd to do, as fworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oath, and keep it too.

2your deep oath,] The old copies have-eaths. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

LONG. I am refolv'd: 'tis but a three years' faft; The mind fhall banquet, though the body pine: Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but bank'rout quite the wits. DUM. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified; The groffer manner of these world's delights He throws upon the grofs world's bafer flaves: To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die; With all these living in philofophy.'

BIRON. I can but say their protestation over,
So much, dear liege, I have already fworn,
That is, To live and ftudy here three years.
But there are other ftrict obfervances:
As, not to fee a woman in that term;
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:
And, one day in a week to touch no food;
And but one meal on every day befide;
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there:
And then, to fleep but three hours in the night,
And not be feen to wink of all the day;

(When I was wont to think no harm all night,
And make a dark night too of half the day ;)
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there.
O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep;
Not to fee ladies, ftudy, faft, not sleep.*

With all thefe living in philofophy.] The ftyle of the rhyming fcenes in this play is often entangled and obfcure. I know not certainly to what all thefe is to be referred; I fuppofe he means, that he finds love, pomp, and wealth in philosophy. JOHNSON.

By all thefe, Dumain means the King, Biron, &c. to whom he may be fuppofed to point, and with whom he is going to live in philofophical retirement. A. C.

4 Not to fee ladies, study, faft, not sleep.] The words as they stand, will exprefs the meaning intended, if pointed thus:

Not to fee ladies-ftudy. faft-not fleep.

Biron is recapitulating the feveral tasks impofed upon him viz. not to fee ladies, to study, to faft, and not to fleep: but Shakspeare, by a common poetical license, though in this paffage injudiciously

KING. Your oath is pass'd to pafs away from these. BIRON. Let me fay, no, my liege, an if you please; I only fwore, to study with your grace,

And stay here in your court for three years' space.

LONG. You fwore to that, Biron, and to the rest. BIRON. By yea and nay, fir, then I swore in jeft.What is the end of ftudy? let me know.

KING. Why, that to know, which else we should not know.

BIRON. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common fense?

KING. Ay, that is ftudy's god-like recompenfe. BIRON. Come on then, I will fwear to ftudy fo, To know the thing I am forbid to know: As thus, To ftudy where I well may dine, When I to feast exprefsly am forbid ;' Or, study where to meet fome mistress fine, When miftreffes from common fense are hid: Or, having fworn too hard-a-keeping oath, Study to break it, and not break my troth. If study's gain be thus, and this be fo," Study knows that, which yet it doth not know: Swear me to this, and I will ne'er fay, no.

KING. These be the stops that hinder ftudy quite, And train our intellects to vain delight.

exercised, omits the article to, before the three laft verbs, and from hence the obfcurity arifes. M. MASON.

5 When I to feaft exprefsly am forbid;] The copies all have:

When I to faft expressly am forbid;

But if Biron ftudied where to get a good dinner, at a time when he was forbid to faft, how was this ftudying to know what he was forbid to know? Common fenfe, and the whole tenour of the context require us to read-feaft, or to make a change in the last word of the verfe:-" When I to fast expressly am fore-bid;"

i. e. when I am enjoined before-hand to faft. THEOBALD. If fudy's gain be thus, and this be fo,] Read:

"

If study's gain be this- RITSON.

« PreviousContinue »